


Tradition

by cronashy_absentia



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Now With Star Wars, SoMa - Freeform, includes drugged mumblings of post-surgery maka and soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 09:37:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6279289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cronashy_absentia/pseuds/cronashy_absentia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soul was expecting his meister to not make such sense after coming out of surgery. What he didn't expect was for her to demand to watch movies she didn't even seem to like. What starts out as a strange request soon becomes a sort of tradition between the two, presenting an opportunity for Soul to realize that his feelings for Maka may just be requited.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tradition

Right off the bat, Soul had known his meister was a strange one. She’d had to have been a bit off-base to stick around and listen to what his parents _lovingly_ called “a disgraceful slamming of piano keys that is as far from music as a bald eagle is to a blue whale.” His suspicions only continued to be confirmed as her mannerisms showed themselves: how she’d hum tunelessly sometimes; how her bookshelf had to be arranged just so; how her shirts had to be folded in thirds and not halves.

Maka Albarn was particular; a creature of habit, perfection, and order. If Soul argued with her when she had her mind set on doing something a certain way, he felt as if he was bickering with a concrete wall.

But when Maka, her words slurring slightly, demanded that he put on Star Wars, Soul almost forgot what common sense was and opened his mouth to question his meister.She had said it so randomly. Perhaps it was a side effect of the anesthesia she had received at the hospital. After all, she _had_ just returned from having her wisdom teeth removed. Soul couldn’t think of any other reason she would say something as odd as “I need to watch Star Wars.” She didn’t even specify which Episode.

Soul paused from switching out the bloodied gauze in her mouth. “Why?” he asked. Maka shot him what seemed to be an attempt at a glare, but in her sedated state it looked more like annoyance.

“Because I need to feel better,” she grumbled. She stuck her foot off the couch and began kicking Soul away from where he kneeled in front of him. “So I need to watch Star Wars.”

Soul quickly jumped up when she resorted to physical violence, yet he continued to stare at Maka quizzically. There seemed to be absolutely no correlation between Star Wars and healing up after surgery.

He sighed. “Maka, can’t I get you some pain meds, or a better pillow, or—“

“Star Wars.”

Soul suppressed a groan. He didn’t even like Star Wars that much. He wasn’t sure that Maka did, either; before that morning, she had never even mentioned any of the movies.

However, his meister was giving him a glare that made her look like she would bury her weapon alive the first chance she got if he didn’t supply her with some Obi-wan and asteroids, so he reluctantly reached into the cabinet under the TV. He considered himself lucky that Black*Star had given him a boxed set of Episodes One through Six for Christmas a few years back, although the plastic wrapping hadn’t even been removed yet.

Glancing back at Maka, who had swathed her arms around one of the couch pillows but still seemed irritated, Soul gulped nervously.

“Which episode?” he asked tentatively.

Maka blinked for a moment. “… The first one,” she said. Soul didn’t know if she meant Episode One or Four, but he wasn’t too eager to see One again after Black*Star had shown it to him, so he put disc four in the DVD player and hoped for the best.

Thankfully, Maka didn’t say anything about not wanting to see _A New Hope_ as the movie started to play. Instead, she watched the screen silently as Soul spooned soup into her aching mouth, her body pressed against his side.

Soul suspected that if she hadn’t been inhibited by painkillers, she wouldn’t have been so close to him, so he didn’t move to return the contact. Even if he often wanted to wrap his arms around her and just hold her, not because she needed comfort but just because he _could_ , he felt as if doing so in her current state would be taking advantage of her.

So he stayed still, distracting himself by running his thumb across the rubber buttons of the remote control, careful not to press anything.

Over the years, Maka was put through more outpatient surgeries than Soul could count, with everything from battle wounds to unfortunate injuries (which were mostly caused by Black*Star and household appliances). And every time since her wisdom teeth removal, whenever Maka returned home, she’d demand Star Wars.

It became a sort of tradition, albeit an odd one in Soul’s opinion. Maka would sit down on the couch, curled up in a thick blanket, and with her feet propped on the coffee table in front of her, which she chided Soul for doing whenever she was fully awake. Then she’d demand Star Wars, but it got to the point where she didn’t even have to say anything, and Soul would immediately get the DVD out as soon as he sat her down.

Soul was pretty sure he could quote every line of dialogue from _A New Hope_ , not to mention play the entire soundtrack on the piano from memory. He learned to love it, though, but not for the movie. He learned to love how content it made his meister when she wasn’t feeling well; how she’d curl up to him; how she’d frown in a mix of emotions every time a ship or planet was destroyed; how he’d nudge her hand with his fingers softly to remind her that it was just fiction, but he’d be there to comfort and support her all the same.

As a result, when Soul stretched himself out on the couch, groaning every few minutes at the sore, throbbing pain in his mouth and unable to eat anything he had to chew, he only had one movie on his mind.

“There,” Maka smiled warmly, placing the last spoonful of chocolate pudding in his mouth. “That’s all of it. Feel any better?”

Soul shook his head. “I hate wisdom teeth,” he grumbled as he wrapped his blanket tighter around his shoulders. “I could’ve kept them. I would’ve been fine.”

Maka shook her head. “Soul, your dentist said that your wisdom teeth were so sharp that they were going to cut your gums if you let them grow any further,” she pointed out. Soul grunted but fixed his grumpy gaze on the blank TV screen. His meister seemed to follow his line of sight for a moment, and a flash of acknowledgement spread across her face before she turned back to Soul.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” she asked, to which Soul nodded. “Which one?”

Soul didn’t have to think for very long. “ _The Empire Strikes Back_ ,” he replied. “I want to know what happens next.”

He could see Maka smile a little as she knelt down to retrieve the disc from under the television. “I thought you said Black*Star made you watch them all,” she said.

Soul rubbed one of his numb cheeks for a moment, but he quickly pulled his hand away. “I wasn’t paying attention,” he muttered, “And that was years ago.”

Maka chuckled as she strode back to the couch, and Soul straightened himself up to allow room for her to sit down beside him. Almost immediately, he leaned against his meister, resting his head on hers. It irked him slightly that he couldn’t feel her hair on his cheek, but her blonde strands tickled his ear.

The scythe thought for a moment that he would never be so bold to lean against her if he was in his right mind. However, the thought was quickly pushed aside when Maka curled against him. With a small, content sigh, she placed her arm behind his shoulders as the famous Star Wars theme song began on the TV.

It may have been the medicine, but Soul began to wonder if he had been wrong about Maka wanting to keep her distance from him. The movie quickly distracted him, though, and he didn’t think any more of it.


End file.
